Three shares at the small end of the market that have made strong gains today are listed below. Here's why they are on the rise today:

The Beadell Resources Ltd (ASX: BDR) share price is up over 9% to 4.3 cents on Thursday. Earlier this week the gold miner provided its annual resource and reserve statement update. In the update the miner revealed that it has undertaken insufficient drilling to add to its mineral resources and ore reserves estimates in 2018. While this was slightly underwhelming, investors appear to have looked beyond this due to its future plans. Management advised that it is looking forward to demonstrating the potential of its Tucano mine upon completion of its transaction with Great Panther.

The Central Petroleum Limited (ASX: CTP) share price has surged 7% higher to 15.5 cents. This morning the energy producer announced that its customer Incitec Pivot (ASX:IPL) has advised that its Gas Sale Agreement is now expected to commence between December 29 and January 10. Management advised that these dates reflect when the Northern Gas Pipeline is anticipated to be ready for commercial operations. Furthermore, Central is currently selling commissioning gas to Jemena, and this is expected to ramp up as the date for Northern Gas Pipeline commercial operations approaches.

The LiveHire Ltd (ASX: LVH) share price is up 4% to 50 cents after the talent technology company announced an enterprise agreement with DuluxGroup Limited (ASX: DLX). The release explains that the enterprise agreement represents annualised recurring revenue (ARR) of more than three times the current average ARR across its clients, in addition to other non-recurring upfront revenue. Management believes the agreement signals significant progression in the company's direct sales strategy, as it demonstrates ongoing applicability and adoption of the LiveHire platform with larger enterprises.

The post These small cap ASX shares are surging higher on Thursday appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) sold the remaining half of its Meereenie gas field to Macquarie as part of its divestment project recently, while Macquarie itself has been quietly bidding for Central Petroleum Limited (ASX: CTP) shares.

A possible IPO?

Is Macquarie angling to cobble together a few gas assets and list them on the ASX next year? Fairfax Media has reported that Quadrant Energy is considering a listing, although whether Macquarie and partners would seek to combine other recently acquired assets into the new company is uncertain.

Also uncertain is whether Macquarie would intend to keep part of its stake in the company after the float, or divest it. Buying oil assets during periods of low oil prices and seeking to repackage and sell them a few years later is classic hedge fund work, but investment bank Macquarie also has a track record of longer-term shareholdings – notably Sydney Airport Holdings Ltd (ASX: SYD), which was formerly known as Macquarie Airports.

With Macquarie upping its bets on oil and gas recently, ordinary investors will be wondering if they should do the same. There is certainly potential to earn attractive returns if oil prices continue to recover, but investors need to remember that they can't cherry-pick individual assets like Macquarie can. Instead, they must buy shares representing a tiny portion of an entire company, encompassing both its positive and negative attributes.

In my opinion, some of the smaller producers with lower debt look interesting at today's prices.

The post Macquarie Group Ltd bets big on oil and gas – should you? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

But four shares which have been going against the grain and putting strong gains on for their respective shareholders are as follows:

Atlas Iron Limited (ASX: AGO) shares have jumped 13% to 2.5 cents following yet another rise in the iron ore price. Overnight iron ore rose 7% to an 18-month high of US$79 a tonne according to The Metal Bulletin. Although President-elect Donald Trump's infrastructure plans could drive long-term demand for iron ore nothing is set in stone at this stage. The price of iron ore could face a sharp and sudden decline in the next few months.

Central Petroleum Limited (ASX: CTP) shares have rocketed higher by 33% to 18 cents after it emerged that the oil and gas company had received a takeover approach from shareholder and principal financier Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG). The offer of 17.5 cents per share was deemed not to be in the best interest of shareholders by Central's directors.

Mesoblast limited (ASX: MSB) shares are up almost 5% to $1.23 following a positive update regarding the trial of its drug to treat acute versus graft host disease in children. As positive as the update might sound, the regenerative medicine company's cash burn certainly doesn't appear to make it investable at this stage.

Wellard Ltd (ASX: WLD) shares are higher by 9% to 24 cents despite there being no news out of the agribusiness company. Last week it was revealed that the company and major shareholder Butt Nominees had locked horns over its share price performance, director remuneration, and board representation. The two parties won't have long to wait until they come face to face, with the company's AGM scheduled for November 29.

The post Why these 4 ASX shares are skyrocketing today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Following the release of Central's shares from their trading halt, they have rocketed higher by 37% to 18.5 cents after a takeover approach from shareholder and principal financier Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) was announced.

Central revealed this morning that on November 10 it received an unsolicited, indicative, and non-binding proposal from Macquarie to acquire 100% of the issued capital of Central for 17.5 cents per share.

According to the release the proposal is subject to various conditions including due diligence and entry by both parties into definitive transaction documents.

Although management has determined that Macquarie's offer is not in the best interests of its shareholders, it has granted the bank due diligence access subject to appropriate documentation.

The company believes that doing so will provide Macquarie with an opportunity to reconsider its proposal.

It would appear as though management believes Central is worth far more than what Macquarie is currently offering and that a look under the hood will invite a better offer. Considering Central expects explosive revenue growth over the next couple of years, they could well be on the money.

A recent presentation shows that by FY 2018 management expects revenue to grow to beyond $60 million from $22.6 million in FY 2016. This expectation is based on existing uncontracted gas reserves.

If the company does deliver on this, I feel quite sure it will be worth more than 17.5 cents per share. In light of this I wouldn't be surprised to see Macquarie come back with a better offer.

But I wouldn't suggest investors jump in and invest in the company purely in the hope of a better offer driving the share price higher. Macquarie could just as easily walk away from the deal, leading to Central's share price taking a tumble.

The post Why Macquarie Group Ltd wants to buy Central Petroleum Limited appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

So much for the doomsayers' predictions of a market crash, the end of the world or whatever.

And while the index has gained more than 5%, a number of companies have done significantly better. Here are 5 of the top performing companies in the past month…

Central Petroleum Limited's (ASX: CTP) share price has rocketed up 190% to 29 cents. In early October, the oil and gas company announced that it was in negotiations with gas purchasers, which could result in firm gas sales of around 12 petajoules (PJ) for 10 years from the 2018/19 financial years, and in excess of $500 million of revenues over the same period. There's still plenty of water to flow under the bridge before the company actually books those revenues, but so far so good.

Coffey International Limited (ASX: COF) saw its share price zoom up 138% to 40.5 cents, after receiving a takeover offer. The geotechnical consulting services company received a 42.5 cents per share takeover offer from NASDAQ-listed Tetra Tech, Inc. Coffey's board unanimously support the takeover bid, which appears to be headed for a successful conclusion.

Reffind Ltd (ASX: RFN) share price has climbed 83% to $1.93, as investors clamour to get into hot tech/disruptive stocks. Reffind allows employees to interact with their company's jobs site through an app, by referring friends for jobs and potentially being rewarded. Employees are encouraged to interact by receiving a referral fee if their candidate is successful, and also going into weekly prize draws. My colleague Owen Raskiewicz covered Reffind in more detail here.

Brainchip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN) share price has gained 77.3% to 39 cents – again as investors look to disruptive tech businesses. Brainchip has developed a technology that it says has the ability to learn autonomously, evolve and associate information just like the human brain. With thousands of potential commercial uses including smartphones, driverless cars, drones and forecasting, is this the beginning of Skynet?

Avita Medical Ltd (ASX: AVH) has seen its share price gain 71.9% to 11 cents. The company specialises in regenerative medicine for the treatment of wounds and skin defects. In late September, Avita was awarded a US Government contract valued at up to US$53.9 million over five years. That includes US$16.9 million to support Avita's FDA approval trial for the treatment of thermal burn injuries and to purchase 5,000 plus ReCell devices.

Foolish takeaway

There's no guarantee these five will continue to surge higher over the next month. Four of the five companies (not Coffey) above might be classified as speculative investments and could be wildly successful or very disappointing. But investors might want to keep a close eye on those four.

The post 5 of the top performing stocks in the past month appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

— An Australian dollar at US68 cents.

— Interest rates below 2%.

— A stock market at 6,000.

Aitken has a good track record making big bold calls, so when he makes forecasts like this, it pays to stand up and take notice.

That said, directionally at least, none of the above should surprise regular readers of our Motley Fool Take Stock email.

I've long been suggesting the Aussie dollar can only fall, that interest rates can only go down, and that by comparison, the stock market is the only game in town.

The only exception might be property. Fuelled by low interest rates, Aitken has forecast a 10% rise in residential property prices in 2015.

It's a property bubble that keeps Glenn Stevens and his merry band of the Reserve Bankers awake at night. The broader economy needs still lower interest rates — witness the unemployment rate jumping today to 6.4% — but needs higher property prices like a hole in the head.

In response to the higher unemployment rate, The Sydney Morning Herald is today quoting ANZ economist Riki Polygenis as saying he expects a further interest rate cut as soon as next month. Hold on to your term deposits…

My advice? Stick to the share market.

There's nothing Aussie punters like more than property, and buying the latest hot asset. It's an irresistible cocktail, but one that's almost guaranteed to end in tears for people paying top dollar in today's already over-heated property market.

And that's before you have to deal with rates, repairs, body corporates, unruly tenants, late payments, vacancy periods and real estate agents.

Seriously, life is too short.

It's no secret I'm an equities man. We all are here at The Motley Fool. It's our passion. It's our ticket to wealth.

Best of all, when you buy shares in a company, thousands of people are working for you, generating profits, which are ultimately returned to you in the form of dividends and rising share prices.

Take Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS), for example. The "dividend darling" of the SMSF Army today reported a sharp jump in profits and an increased fully franked interim dividend, up from 14.5 cents to 15 cents per share.

Over the past 12 months, Telstra shares have jumped 27%. In addition, shareholders have received 29.5 cents per share of fully franked dividends.

As a shareholder, it all comes at no cost to you. Next time one of those pesky Telstra salespeople calls you just as you're sitting down for dinner, know they are working for you, not against you.

It gets better. In the form of fully franked dividends, you get a nice break from the taxman. Plus, if you do need to sell your shares, you can do it instantly, at little expense. Try doing that with an investment property.

Add it all up, and share market investing beats property investing hands down. And the returns are better too. And you don't have to borrow huge chunks of money to play the share market game.

Plus, it's fun, especially when the market is going up, and especially more so when the shares you own are going up.

Speaking of which, today is a momentous day in the history of Motley Fool Share Advisor, the flagship subscription-only stock tipping service of The Motley Fool, headed by our own Scott Phillips.

You've probably seen Scott on Sky Business News, or on the ABC.

This afternoon, after the market close, Scott will release his brand new 3 ASX Best Buys Now stocks, exclusively to Motley Fool Share Advisor members. Click here to get the names of Scott's top stocks, hot off the presses, and grab a TWO year subscription for just $299. I'm biased, but I think it's the best deal going in the share market advisory business.

Scott's the fastest talker on television. Put your TV on slow motion and you'll catch every word, at normal speed.

The good news is you don't have to catch every single word to understand what Scott's saying. Like all of us here at The Motley Fool, when you boil it all down, we keep investing simple….

1) Buy good companies.
2) Pay fair prices.
3) Regularly add money to the share market, particularly to your best ideas.
4) Hold companies for the long-term.
5) Retire wealthy.

If you need evidence of how stunningly effective this simple strategy can be, consider this…

Today, almost simultaneously, not one but TWO of the share tips we made for Motley Fool Share Advisor subscribers tipped over to be 400% winners.

No wonder one poster to our popular and lively Motley Fool Share Advisor subscription-only discussion boards said just a few hours ago…

"Life is wonderful! Nice day to be a Fool."

Many investors go through a lifetime without ever quintupling (5 times) their money on just one position, let alone two, or more.

They sell out too early, going by the flawed theory of "never going broke taking a profit." They are only kidding themselves.

They sell out when markets get choppy, convincing themselves they'll buy back in when the market is lower. They never do

They chase highly speculative penny stocks — like oil minnow Central Petroleum Limited (ASX: CTP) and medical cannabis hopeful Phytotech Medical Ltd (ASX: PYL) — in the hope of getting rich quick. The odds are totally stacked against them. Head to the casino instead.

They do everything but Invest Foolishly. And in the process, shoot themselves in the foot, again, and again and again.

It's important to buy the right company at the right price. But the BIG money is made in the holding, the longer the better.

Albert Einstein called this deceptively simple concept the "greatest mathematical discovery of all time." We call it a path to financial independence.

Welcome to the miracle of compound returns. Or, money making money.

Out of respect to the paying members of Motley Fool Share Advisor, I can't reveal the names of the two 400% winners, especially as Scott Phillips still rates one of them as a buy today.

What I can tell you is both Scott and I have some serious money of our own on the line behind this company. We sleep well at night.

At the start of this year, I made it my financial new year's resolution to add more money to my winners.

Too often investors water their weeds — adding to their losers — when the way to generate serious share market wealth is by adding more money to their best ideas. I'm talking about adding to your winners.

Here at The Motley Fool, we eat our own cooking. We buy shares, with our own personal money, in a good number of the companies we recommend to subscribers of our newsletter services.

A case in point is one of our freshly minted Motley Fool Share Advisor 400% winners.

Both Scott Phillips and myself bought shares in the company with our own money — some time after we'd recommended the stock to our subscribers, in line with our strict internal ethical rules, it should be noted.

We also added to our position, not once, but twice, at increasingly higher share prices, in the process putting more firepower behind one of our top investment ideas, and one of our favourite companies.

The result today is very significant personal holdings, ones we both think can keep growing long into the future.

Heck, Scott was so confident about the future prospects of this big winner that he had the guts to recommend Motley Fool Share Advisor subscribers buy the stock even though, at the time, it had already risen over 180% from the share price he'd initially tipped the shares.

Add to your winners. Water your flowers…

Just yesterday I told you about how I was tempted to add to my personal holding in K2 Asset Management Holdings Ltd (ASX: KAM). Seems I'm not the only one interested, K2 shares jumping another 5% today. C'est la vie.

On the bright side, at the rate things are going for the K2 share price, I'll soon be back in positive territory, enabling me to fulfil my new year's investing resolution of adding to a winner.

Above I mentioned how Scott Phillips is releasing his brand new 3 ASX Best Buys Now Stocks, exclusively to Motley Fool Share Advisor subscribers, today at 4.30pm AEDST.

Looking back at last month's list of companies, at the time, I already held two, and subsequently I took out a new position in the third, Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT).

In double-quick time, Flight Centre shares are up more than 10%. Plus, they trade on a fully franked dividend yield of around 4%. No wonder Scott's 3 ASX Best Buys Now feature is Motley Fool Share Advisor's most eagerly awaited  feature.

Like you, I can't wait.

The post Why you need higher property prices like a hole in the head appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Unfortunately, some smaller stocks have been hammered. Here's our view on four of them…

Mint Wireless Limited (ASX: MNW)

Mint's shares have dropped 17.3% to 9.1 cents, despite the company releasing no news. Perhaps investors were spooked by an Australian Financial Review (AFR) article today, reporting that the government had agreed to abolish the need for credit card issuers and processors to have a banking licence. The AFR says 10 organisations want to compete with the banks, while mobile payment providers Square, Payvision and Airplus International are considering issuing 'virtual' credit cards. It remains to be seen whether the changes are positive or negative for Mint.

Freelancer Ltd (ASX: FLN)

The provider of an online freelance marketplace, continues to see its shares fall. Today they have lost 6.4% to 65.5 cents, and are down 22% over the past month. It's a far cry from a high of $1.99 back in November 2013, shortly after the company listed. Still, revenues and registered users are both growing strongly, so this may be one stock to watch.

Central Petroleum Limited (ASX: CTP)

Central's shares have sunk 5.8% to 24.5 cents in trading today. The company says it holds the largest prospective onshore acreage in Australia, with an estimated 270,000 square km, mainly in the Northern Territory. Interestingly, director Robert Hubbard acquired 55,900 shares on market last week, perhaps suggesting positive results are expected from the company's Gaudi-1 gas exploration well.

Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX: LNG)

LNG has seen its shares drop 5.9% to $2.88, with shares losing 19% in the past five days. The reasons could be several, ranging from profit taking, after shares soared 1,408% since the beginning of this year, to concerns over sliding oil prices. LNG (the company) is developing one of the US's first LNG (gas) export terminals, utilising its proprietary technology.

The post 4 ASX stocks smashed by the market today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.